Corporate vampires drain another artery

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2024 (573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“They have overseen the crapification of local news by laying off journalists and now they say it’s no longer economically viable to run these local radio stations.” — B.C. Premier David Eby.

The premier of British Columbia is one of the most articulate people in politics today, and he knows that crapification is not a word.

But he was willing to juice the King’s English to make the point that Bell Media, the parent company of CTV, has behaved like a corporate vampire for many years. They purchased radio and TV stations coast to coast, laid off many people in order to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible and then, this week, announced that radio and TV were no longer profit centres for them and so it was time to lay off even more people.

The B.C. premier couldn’t have been more clear. CTV turned a quality product into crap and then concluded that the demand for it was shrinking by the hour.

It was one of the biggest stories in the country — developing over the last few decades — getting precious little news coverage from CTV or its competitors who were doing the same thing, only a little less dramatically.

They all had to cover this week’s story. How do you not report on nearly 5,000 layoffs, the sale of 45 radio stations and the cancellation of entire local newscasts on TV?

In virtually every market in the country, including Winnipeg, there will be no CTV local news on weekends or holidays.

Does anyone believe that local news only happens Monday through Friday? Does anyone believe that BCE, Bell Media’s parent company, doesn’t turn a big profit? They make huge profits on cellphone, internet and cable service.

You know that because, whether you’re a Bell customer or not, you know how much you pay for those services and you know that you pay through the nose compared to our neighbours in the U.S.

That’s because many companies in the U.S. compete to sell those services. Only a handful of companies operate in Canada. The law of the land prevents competition, allowing a handful of companies to makes fistfuls of profit.

Despite the fact that the government is the best friend the telecoms have in generating massive profits, Bell has the chutzpah to blame government for this week’s layoff announcement. Bell says the government isn’t respecting their desire to eliminate news entirely as a requirement for a licence to operate.

I don’t blame readers for thinking I am writing this not just because of the clear public interest. That it might also be because of my personal connection to the media industry. Guilty as charged. The expression, “It’s not personal — just business” has no meaning to me. My columns are personal. They are letters to my fellow Manitobans.

For over half a century, I have been doing commentaries on radio and TV and columns for newspapers, injecting my personal stories and opinions. It’s what I have been doing since the ’70s.

The media business has given my life meaning, and made my dreams come true. For that I don’t thank corporate vampires. I thank listeners, viewers and readers. We have formed a trust over the years. Media is about telling stories. I have told thousands of them and so have thousands of other media professionals. And if we are doing it less well than we used to and don’t mean as much to the public as we used to, there is a frighteningly good reason for that. In the words of Bell Media, “It’s not a viable business anymore.”

But radio and TV news doesn’t need to be a business. It should be a public service, delivered to the public which is transferring big bucks to these companies every hour of every day.

Every time you use your phone, or get on the web or watch TV, you’re delivering dollars to the telecoms.

So they should spend a few pennies in return for the dollars they are reaping. They should be feeding the news beast. Starving it is a massive disservice to the public because it suffocates democracy.

There has never been a time when we have heard more opinions from politicians, completely untethered to reality. How do I know?

I’ve worked for vampires.

I’m a witness to the debasement of democracy.

And I’m sad to report that B.C.’s David Eby is one of the few telling the truth about the crapification of radio and TV news.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. charles@charlesadler.com